Model predictive motion control of blanket remote maintenance mover

•The general mathematical model of mover was established by using physics-based method.•A state error feedback-based state observer was established.•Controller based on model predictive control (MPC) was designed. The control matrix was solved based on the primal-dual method and Hildreth iterative method to improve the calculation efficiency and the stability of the actual operation.•The results showed that the control error of the MPC controller was reduced by 70 % compared to the PI controller.